'Last chance' to pass Allingtown fire district budget in West Haven

Published 12:00 am, Tuesday, September 27, 2011

WEST HAVEN -- Voters tonight will have a "last chance" to pass the Allingtown Fire District budget before district officials will ask for outside assistance, Chief Peter Massaro said.

The budget has failed three times this year, and officials have cautioned that the department will run out of money. This fourth attempt contains the largest increase yet: a 1.7 mill jump. The last rejected budget reflected a 1-mill increase.

Voters will consider the budget during a meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Forest School.

Massaro said the increase is necessary because a recent financial report shows "the department is $1.5 million in the hole." The 1.7-mill increase, which would raise the 7.55 tax rate to 9.25 mills, is necessary to close that gap, he said.

Massaro has previously said a fourth vote might never come, and that he would instead bring in the state Office of Policy Management to set the tax rate and run finances for three years until the district recovers.

Mayor John M. Picard has said he is against that move, and if it comes to that point, he would lobby for the city to take over Allingtown's finances.

Massaro has said the department has minimal staffing and that he "can't run a department with less than the money I'm spending." Tuesday, Massaro said he would have to seek outside help if this vote fails.

"We'll have to go to OPM or seek other avenues," he said. "It'll probably be OPM. I can't lay firemen off."

Picard on Tuesday said, in the event of a failed vote today, the city would work with the Allingtown Fire Department to help determine what best for the department, residents and city in the future.

Because the budget has failed, July 1 tax bills bore the 2010 tax rate of 7.55 mills, rather than the 8.55- mill tax rate Allingtown had proposed after three rounds of cuts. The initial budget, with a proposed tax rate increase of 1.19 mills, failed by nine votes at a meeting attended by more than 130 residents in May. It failed twice more that summer: a proposed 1.03-mill increase was rejected 102-69, and the 1-mill increase failed 174-93.

Under the first proposed budget, most people in Allingtown would have received between a $150 decrease and a $150 increase in their taxes, depending on the value of their homes, Allingtown Fire Commission Chairman Ron Walters said at the time.

Massaro said the district has to collect more taxes than it did in the previous budget because of revaluation, increases in operating costs and contractual obligations.